Hives MMXVII

I think "Autotheism" is the name of an album by The Faceless (a band I thoroughly despise), and this band who decided to name themselves "Autotheism" are at least on some level of Faceless wanna-be. Tagging their genre as simply "atmospheric" and "death metal" on their Bandcamp site, the music presented on their EP "Hives MMXVII" (when will people stop naming albums with Roman numerals of the year it was released/whatever number album the effort is in the band's chronology?) is definitely the result of the band reading the dictionary definition of death metal.

I suppose that, due to their namesake, the band is trying to create "technical death metal", but it's actually lifeless death metal. (Hey, new genre classification!) The drums are at least fifty percent blast beat and devoid of emotion or human touch. Of course, they're programmed/triggered/whatever they do to drums these days to make them sound el3ctronic and artificial. Few fills and repetitive patterns make it sound like whoever programmed the drums was relying exclusively on the default MIDI loops that EZdrummer had to offer him. The guitar riffs are boring tremolo-picked lines that I assume are supposed to be "atmospheric" to be true to the Bandcamp tag. Just as lifeless and unmemorable as the drums, I imagine that the guitarists got most of the speed in their picking hands from masturbating to Faceless tracks. Also, of course, the bass is not present, being lost in the sea of production that is just as shiny and lifeless as porcelain. All you can hear occasionally is a mechanical whine which is a sign that they cranked the mids on the bass and applied distortion.

Arrangement-wise, everything gels together and is devoid of emotion as well and not memorable in the slightest. The vocals, which consist of a monotonous pitch-shifted death growl that we've heard a thousand times before, are also devoid of emotion. Lyrically, the EP is vaguely alien-themed and vaguely abstract emotion-themed, with both having something to do with deformation of the body and lame attempts at making gore sound "intellectual". More Faceless influence, maybe... no, Faceless don't write about gore, just aliens and anti-religion. They're actually quite well-written, but they're not really anything new, and you can't even understand what the vocalist is saying, even if you have the lyrics right in front of you.

I wish I could write more, but there's not much else to write, seeing as how the EP is two tracks long and I've basically dumped all the criticism I've given so many other bands on Autotheism. It's gotten to the point where I'm recycling my reviews over and over to apply the same criticism to all thee underground bands, turning my writings into lifeless stains. Well, what should I expect, given that I write about lifeless bands who recycle their musical material. Listen to this if you want to experience another underground death metal band who is unrecognizable, boring, and faceless.